leaves falling

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

"MELT"

The last 2 months have been full of "Melting" for me. First off, we have had a very consistently cold winter. I love the snow and enjoyed it; however, we are so ready for Spring and Summer. I so badly wanted to take Aubrey outside to build a snowman; unfortunately, the day I decided to go out, the snow was melting. As sad as it was, I was also excited to see our grass again. For a little while, I could glimpse that Winter was not going to last forever. In fact, today it reached 61' on the thermometer! How's that for exciting?

Instead of building a snowman, Aubrey and Aleigha made sopping wet Snow Angels. Aubrey was a little unsure of the whole adventure at first.

However, it didn't take Aubrey long to really enjoy laying in a sloppy mess of slush.
I love her cheeser smiles!
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Next, my heart melted as i held my beautiful niece Kenli in my arms. Many fond memories of Aubrey's birth came flooding back to my mind. Kenli was the exact same size Aubrey was when she was born, 6lbs 8oz.. I can't believe my baby girl has grown up that much in the last 20mths. My heart also melted as I have seen Aubrey interact with Kenli so well. I know Aubrey is so excited to be a big sister someday and I know that she will be a great one at that!

This is the first time Aubrey got to meet her new cousin Kenli Marie!

Aubrey is so "in love" with her baby cousins. Luckily for Titan, Kenli was born so Aubrey can spread her smothering between the two new babies.

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Third, my heart also melted as Wade and I have started participating in an ongoing Love-War between one another. Because we are quite the pranksters, we decided one day that instead of being ruthless, we would put our minds to good use and start a love pranking war instead of the traditional prank war. However, Wade said I had to make the first move. Well we got busier and busier and the idea got pushed to the back burner; until about a week ago when I decided to break the ice. Aubrey and I snuck into Wade's shop and put a six pack of soda and two cans of Pringles on his desk. We decorated them with ribbon and tied an heart shaped balloon to them with a note that said. "We SODA love you even when you're CHEESY. -The love wars begin!"

The next day, I got a single rose delivered to me in the mail that had a note that read "Two Can Play the Game"

The day after that, he found a small gift bag hanging from the front door that said, "The Reisens I love you" Inside was candy Reisens with a piece of paper wrapped around the candy inside the wrapper with a Reason why I loved him.

The next day I got in the car to see 50 pieces of paper on the ceiling that had numbers on the back. After I tore them down and put them all in order it was a love note from him to me.
That night, when we went to go check the mail, I had placed a wrapped package inside with a love note to him written in Spanish (since he can speak the language). Inside the package was the game UNO with a small note that said. "You're the only UNO for me!"

A few days later, when I got back from running, all the lights were off in our house and there were about 25little tiki candle spread about the place laminating the place in a Romantic way.

Next, I planned an Awesome Valentines Night for us! Read on to learn more!
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Aubrey and I have been super unfortunate to catch about everything this Winter. Several times, we melted with fever!
Our poor girl got especially sick this last week with a bad cough and cold. She is a super sleeper; however, she never falls asleep unless she is in a crib or bed. However, one morning after feeding her breakfast, she was so sick that she just laid her sweet head on my lap. A few minutes later, I looked over to see that she was sleeping soundly. The baby doll in the picture above is Baby Kelsey. She is Aubrey's favorite doll right now. They sleep together, eat together (Aubrey tries to feed her), suck binky's together, and even go potty together (both have a potty and sit on them, but most of the time neither of them go pee or poo... hahah).

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Valentine's Day = Melted Chocolate and more Melted Hearts

Emily hosted a wonderful V-Day party for all the cousins. Where they decorated their V-Day bags for their cards and candy.

Ate Lots of Yummy Sweets!

Had an Awesome Aunt read Awesome V-Day books to them.

And posed as best as they could as their picture was taken. This is the best picture I got with all of them in it. Maddie didn't last too long in the scene so I had to take it quick. Aren't these a cute looking bunch of kids?

Silly Baby Faces
Kenli: Ooooh, it that candy?

Titan: I am way too cool for a Valentine's Day Party!
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"The Apple Doesn't Fall Far from the Tree"

So when wade was a child he and his family would use blow dryers to keep warm under blankets. Many times as a child you could find Wade huddled over a furnace vent with a blanket over him to trap the heat. When you hop in the car with him on a cold or mildly cold day, you will soon be rolling down the windows as he has created a sweat lodge mobile by turning the heat up as high as it will go. Now in our home, we have this space heater (pictured above). The rule is, no turning it on until after 9:00pm. because whoever turns it on will be found paralyzed and in a dreamy coma and within minutes will be asleep.

Yesterday morning, Aubrey points to the heater and says, "off." I said yeah, you can turn it on if you want. She hopped of the couch, and when I looked over at her, I saw a miniature Wade standing there in front of it. Wade stands by this heater in the exact same position several times a day. I couldn't believe my eyes it was so funny! She is so much like us more and more every day.

V-Day Surprise from Me
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I sent Wade and Aubrey to the grocery store to pick up a few items for dinner. When the got back, the lights were down low, you could hear a bon fire crackling, crickets chirping, and a Thunderstorm in the distance( a very awesome web site I found with nature sounds you can customize) . When you looked into our backyard (living room) our tent was all set up with candles to set the mood. I was standing around the campstove, quickly preparing our V-Day camping meal. Wade loves camping and so do I. We slept in it all night long. I know he is so anxious to go again soon, so I brought it to him a little sooner than planned. He LOVED it!

Aubrey was not only Siked about the cool tent in our living room but also about her heart shaped cheese burger and smiley face food face plate. I am an Awesome Mommy huh?

But, not only am I an Awesome Mommy, I am an Awesome Wife too! I of course made Wade and I heart shaped cheese burgers with smiley face food plates. I Rock... I know!
Wade and Aubrey: " She did this all for us? She must really love me!"

Aubrey: "Will you be my Valentine Daddy?"

The whole Smiley Food Face Family!

I had a wonderful Valentine's Day this year and I hope you all did too!
I LOVE my Family!

Monday, February 14, 2011

Sew... Perfect!

My sister Emily so graciously let us borrow Aleigha's old carseat when Aubrey was born. However, over the time that we used it, it definitely showed signs of wear and tear on it including gross stains. I just couldn't bring myself to give it back to Emily for her brand new baby girl to use. So, months ago I bought cute fabric in hopes that I could find a nice pattern to use to make her a new seat cover. No such Luck. About 2 weeks before Kenli was born, I knew we had to get a move on it and do something. With lots of help from my AMAZING husband, we were able to redo her car seat, by just recovering the old one. Although, I'm not completely terrible at sewing, I definitely needed Wade's technical help to accomplish this task. I must say that we didn't do so bad, and it looks so darling! Although, don't look too closely as it is apparent that it was made with lots of "LOVE."

Before: It doesn't look too bad in the picture, but it was getting pretty grimy.

During: Proof that Wade was the main "Go-to-Guy"
Also it is proof that this cute new carseat has some errors that demonstrate that it was made with a little talent, and lots of love!

After: It turned out super cute. If you expand this picture, you can see that we had the most difficult time sewing around the border with pink fabric. We were super scared to do the canopy; however, we did an awesome job with it and it wasn't as hard as we thought it would be. We sure hope, little Kenli is comfortable in her new carseat!

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Really... Our Trip Westward!


Utah and Idaho: Here we Come!

After we set up our Christmas Tree, we sadly had to leave it as we were headed to Utah for Christmas!
Aubrey loved our Christmas tree and she would often go up to it and smell it and say " Peety" (Pretty). You could find her redecorating our tree at least 5 times a day. Because we bought our tree and ornaments our first Christmas as Newlyweds, we didn't think about getting balls that were not breakable. We somehow got away with only 3 balls getting broken this year. The ornaments gradually went from equally spread throughout the tree to all of them crowded at the top.

Aubrey was so lucky this year that she got to sit on Santa's lap 4 different times! Each time she got more and more comfortable with him! She calls him "Ho Ho Ho!"


Our bags are packed, we are ready to go! Because of High security this year, they made Aubrey sit on the conveyor belt and be scanned along with the rest of our luggage. Luckily they didn't see the stuff we stashed inside of her!


Aubrey earned her first pair of wings! It's about time since she's been flying numerous times since she was born. She was so excited to see Grandma and GrandDad and all of her cousins!

Christmas Eve all the adults got to go snowboarding while the kids got to spend time with Grandma. Aubrey loved playing with all of her cousins and misses them so bad!

Often times Wade and I would get distracted and forget to keep our eye on Aubrey. When we'd go to look for her, we would always find her with all her cousins playing in the basement. She especially loved all the attention she got from her Girl cousins.

Christmas morning was so exciting as we watched Aubrey get so excited over each of her new gifts. She especially loved her stocking stuffers, including her CHAPSTICK!

I could not resist posting this picture. Aubrey loves Chapstick as more than she loves candy! We can not go to the grocery store without her screaming and pointing to the chapstick saying, "I want Chapsick, I want Chapsick!" She doesn't even see the rows and rows of candy. I love it... she is such a girl!

Aubrey opened all her gifts with the same enthusiasm as the gift before! She loved it and so did we.

A couple days later, we celebrated Weston's Birthday! All the kids enjoyed all the cake and ice cream!

A typical picture of the Christensen boys. While the girls are all throwing out fun ideas to do, the guys are enthralled in whatever game in on.


On the way to Idaho to meet friends and family, we stopped and hung out with our friends Derik and Jessica. We walked down to the water falls and got "wonderful" pictures of us. After wards, we ate some appetizers and Applebee's and then watched Christmas lights to the music and finally hung out at a cool Toy Store. It wasn't exactly in that order, but it was really nice to see them. We really miss hanging out and plotting pranks and doing fun stuff with them. Its hard to be motivated to do fun, crazy things without them! We miss you guys!
Here is the best picture, Derik took of us and the Falls. I guess I should have showed him how to use our camera.

Derik and Jessica. Wouldn't they be so cute with a baby? Haha!
We also got to see our other friends Kay-Marie and Shea when we went to Rexburg. It was the first time that we got to meet their sweet baby boy Conner. Unfortunately, Aubrey was sick so she didn't get to play with him that much. We all went out to eat at Wingers a true delicacy now that we don't have one here in WV. We had so much time and only wish we could have had more time to spend with them.
Next, Idaho Falls! We had fun playing games with Laura and Todd when we got to Idaho. The boys are getting so big. This is the best picture I got with all three kiddos and Ollie is cut out. We really miss them, since we live so far away from each other. Hopefully, we will get to see them again really soon!

Unfortunately, Aubrey got really sick during our trip. So she was so ready to be home. Here is a picture of her shortly after we got back and she was feeling her same old same again. We miss everyone already, and we can't wait till we can see you again. Every day we talk about planning our next trip West again. I hope you are all doing well too! Love you and Miss you a million!